Men's Basketball loses last home game after six-second defeat from UMASS

03/10/09 -Saturday afternoon at the Ryan Center the University of Rhode Island men's basketball team had their five game winning streak snapped with a 72-71 loss to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on senior day.With just six seconds to go UMASS senior Chris Lowe took the ball the length of the court and hit a game-clinching lay-up over the hand of Kahiem Seawright.

"He stepped up and made some big time plays," head coach Jim Baron said. "He got by us. We wanted to extend the floor with our zone. They made a good screen. He came down and made a good play."

Rhody shot 41.4 percent from the floor in just their second home loss on the year. Senior Jimmy Baron talked about their continued struggles on senior day.

"We knew coming in four out of the last five, now five out of the last six, senior nights have been losses," Baron said. "We tried to use it as a distraction not to get caught up in all the ceremony of stuff. We didn't do that. It's tough."

Baron scored a game high 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor and 4-of-11 from beyond the arc. Baron became the all-time Atlantic 10 Conference three point record holder with his four trey bringing his career total to 345. Seawright grabbed a season high and game high 16 rebounds to go along with his six points on just 2-of-10 shooting.

"We were flat," Baron said. "It was emotionally draining early on and I knew it."

As a team the Rams shot 41.4 percent for the game and 21.1 percent from beyond the arc. They were 0-for-12 from the perimeter in the first half.

"There have been times where I have missed my first 10 or 12 shots in a game," Jimmy Baron, who missed his first six shots from the floor, said. "I don't think that was the problem for us today. The problem was we couldn't guard."

The Minutemen led the majority of the first half stretching a lead to as large as eight leading 24-16 at the 9:42 mark in the half. Rhody battled back to take a 30-28 lead on two Lamonte Ulmer free throws with 4:55 remaining. UMASS retook the lead and held a 41-37 advantage heading into halftime.

The second half was much of the same as UMASS held the lead until late in the game when Baron connected on a three pointer putting the Rams up 66-64 with 2:24 remaining. This was the Rams first lead since the 4:16 mark of the opening half. The Minutemen took the lead back on a couple trips to the free throw line putting them up 67-66. Baron put the Rams back in front hitting another three-pointer. Lowe hit a jumper to tie the game at 69 with 1:10 remaining.

Luke Bonner hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line to put UMASS up by one taking 70-69 lead with just 38 seconds to go in regulation. After a Rhody timeout, Marquis Jones held the ball at the top of the key. As time winded down Jones drove to the basket and was fouled with just six seconds to go. Jones hit both free throws to give the Rams a 71-70 lead. UMASS passed the ball to Lowe who took it the length of the floor and converted a lay-up over the outstretched hand of Seawright to seal victory for the Minutemen.

"These guys came in and shot the ball well," coach Baron said. "We kind of dared them to shoot. They made shots. I got to give them credit they stepped up and made shots on the road."

URI will return to action Thursday as the No. 2 seed earning an opening round bye in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament. The Rams will face either Duquesne University or the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Tip-off time is set for 6:30 p.m.

"We got to keep winning," coach Baron said. "We got to take care of business. We have 22 wins and that's tremendous for a team that was picked ninth and now were in second."

The Rams received A-10 Conference honors yesterday as coach Baron was named A-10 Coach of the year for the fourth time in his coaching career. Seniors Baron and Seawright also received all-conference honors. Baron was named to the all conference's first team and Seawright was named to the conference's third team. Junior Delroy James was named the Atlantic 10 sixth man of the year averaging 10.3 points per game and 6.3 rebounds a game.